


fractal

by Novastel



Series: Timeline 32-C [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Background Relationships, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Torture, Matchmaking, Nonbinary Character, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Unreliable Narrator, but all that's gonna be more intense in the other book which I haven't published, no beta we die like over-caffeinated idiots, other than that this is pretty fluffish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Novastel/pseuds/Novastel
Summary: "Mabel, come get your beanbag or I'll have to throw it out the window.""I don't own a beanbag.""I-wait, what?"__It's the 9th summer at Gravity Falls, and the BillDip alliance will stop at nothing to see their beloved ship sail.
Relationships: Bill Cipher & Mabel Pines, Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Pacifica Northwest/Mabel Pines, Will Cipher | Reverse Bill Cipher/Dipper Gleeful | Reverse Dipper Pines
Series: Timeline 32-C [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141199
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	fractal

He stared at him, agape. Holding that clipboard and wearing that white oversized sweater that Axolotl had stolen from him (don't believe them if they said it was theirs in the beginning and that he'd stolen it first), Bill could swear he looked like a scandalized therapist. To be fair, he was telling them his supposed mental problems, so that was close to the truth.

A muscle in Ax’s left eye feathered. "9 _years_? And only _now_ you think 'oh, maybe this isn't a disease, maybe I actually love him'?!" He took off his glasses in exasperation, then pointed their pen at him, like a challenge to a fencing duel. "And you left this out the first few times you told me. Tell me again, from the start, and don't leave anything out again." 

_Ugh, really? I've already told him two times over already._ Bill rolled his eyes. Honestly, he just thought the thoughts were just a normal problem that came of being human, like pain and emotions, that everyone had. For him, the pain thing wasn’t really a problem, more like a good side effect, but ever since Bill began experiencing it constantly, the fun had been leached out. Why, oh why, did Ax manage to make everything all serious and boring and sane? _And why does he seem confused? Since when did he ever get_ _confused?_ _That's, like, something that he's probably incapable of doing, like how I used to be incapable of not being awesome._

_Used to...oh yeah. I'm human now._

"Hey. Hey! Don't you dare space out on me, I still need answers!!" He clicked the pen in front of his face, then near his ears. "CIPHER!!"

"What? I'm not saying it again, I've already said it two times and the embarrassment just gets worse every time I repeat it. Plus," Bill turned his head to the side in a snobbish manner and gave a sidelong glance. "It's not like I'm planning on confessing to him anytime soon. Remember the time I showed up to say hi to him? The water gun?"

Oh, Bill very much remembered the Super Soaker filled with water that had been steeped in unicorn hair that had been pointed at him the minute he popped ‘round. Funny, proving that Pine Tree’s “Bill is probably a demon” joke had survived after all these years, despite him not seeing proof of that claim for almost a decade. It was fun to see his Pine Tree get so frustrated when he ran out of ammo while Cipher was still mostly dry, but he did get acid burned when it made contact with his skin. Ax had made the burns go away, but Bill had a little scarring and his right butt probably wasn't the same since. 

"Yeah, that." They'd taken the ink cartridge out of the pen and drunken the contents, and now was chewing the empty plastic casing. Yep, his counterpart was a walking unironic _Bendy And The Ink Machine_ joke when they were nervous or thinking, which was all the time. He insisted that his habits were simply for knowledge-gathering, but personally, Bill thought that they were just doing it to flex that, even in that “rough draft failure” body, he was a deal greater than Bill would ever be as a human. "Yes. It was a smart move on the kid's behalf, but really? You only admit it when I walk into the living room and find you passed out, having a _wet dream_?" 

Yeah. That. That happened, unfortunately. That was the start of this whole psychoanalyzing thing that his parole officer/sibling was doing. Axolotl had walked into the living room at 2:47 AM to get more caffeine (Bill was personally disgusted to see them go over the amount needed to stop a human heart _every single damn day_ and be completely fine) and spotted him. That was rather mortifying, as he had not woken him but had run back into their room to grab their clipboard to document such behaviour. For _another 30 minutes_. 

"Aghh, anyways," he had to make sure that they wouldn't betray this secret, so therefore: "Don't even try to bamboozle me into doing anything. I know your game."

"Mhmm, yeah, sure..."

"Good."

"..."

"So for the record...This means you confirm that you like him?"

_Annnd here he goes. Too bad I can't threaten him into silence._ "Do I have to answer?" Ax blinked, he could basically see the plans forming behind his eyes, or was he just hallucinating from panic and paranoia? It wouldn't have been the first time in this body. "You really have to ask? Duh."

Cipher sighed. He was going to regret this. He already knew that when he figured out what his obsessive deal with Pine Tree was: it was going to end in ruins. First, there was Egypt, then it was Rome. This time, it was his relationship goals and dreams that were to end like a raging dumpster fire. "Yes. I am in love with Dipper Pines. Happy?"

"Haha, you wish. So, hypothetically," _Oh shit. Shit shit shit. They’re using_ _the H_ _word. That means it's about to happen for real. Damn, I_ _knew_ _this was going to fuck me up._ Bill glanced wistfully at the window, which was leaking just a bit of weak 3 AM light. Once upon a time, in a situation like this, he'd have been able to beat a quick tactical retreat by running at it, breaking through, and falling 2 stories to the ground, where he'd continue to run, or simply teleporting back out to the Mindscape. Now the best option he had was to try and strangle Axolotl, which was stupid because he'd likely see it coming and beat him to it, or just plain stab himself with a fork and delay the inevitable by forcing Ax to attend to him bleeding out and be too busy for the time being to press the matter of his festering emotional problem of 9 years in the making. But none of it was worth it, as he had to accept his fate of placing his love life in the hands of literal god. "If he asked you to date him, would you say yes?" _Dammit, this is worse than Weirdmaggedon. But I digress. I'm not being killed here yet. It's my pride that's tanking._

"What do you expect me to say? Yes, is that it-"

"-Yes. Yeah, that's it. So this means you would. Am I right?" _Ok, so he got me again for the bleventeenth-and-a-half time in this conversation. Calm down, calm down, you can still wriggle your way out of here as soon as you find an opening._ "Yes..."

"Ok, I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile," Ax stood up and hiked up their sleeves. "You should really go back to sleep. See you later." He walked towards the light switch behind him to turn it off. Good. That meant that Axolotl wouldn't see Bill coming when he got up to finally strangle him. Bill was about to do just that when he, predictably, beat him to it. Or not, they seemed to just be aiming to make him pass out. But oh, the panic when he heard Ax run back behind Bill and the cold feeling of hands around the neck was almost on par with the first time someone had tried to strangle him. Oh wow, Bill couldn’t _believe_ he’d once been so green, being scared of being choked to death while in bipedal form. But this time it was likely justified, as Bill was fully mortal and could die of asphyxiation. Anyway, Axolotl grabbed him by the neck and pressed until the cartilage at the base of his head depressed and he went limp. Hm, their smart-person lingo was rubbing off on him. Interesting.

Anyways, he fought but didn’t win. Bill ended up passing out. The last thought he had before his consciousness went down was how fucked the situation was going to be in the not-so-distant future of tomorrow morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> I revised this idea at least 3 goddamn times, then I just gave up and decided I might as well go out in a flaming explosion.  
> Anyways the Axolotl in here is nonbinary (he/they)  
> 


End file.
